Chile’s Ingelco has invested $2.6 million in a dairy plant in Cuba. The new production unit, located in central Sancti Spiritus, was inaugurated by Cuban vice-president Carlos Lage.
The factory is producing evaporated milk in plastic-sealed containers for the domestic market. There are also plans to manufacture flavoured milks, yogurts and milkshakes. All these items have been in short supply in communist-run Cuba, where milk output was hit badly by a severe eco-nomic depression that followed the collapse of the Soviet bloc, the island’s main trading partner.
Lage said that the agreement with Ingelco, which already has a business in Cuba producing fruit juices for the tourist sector, was a good example of how tourism-related commerce could also be used to the benefit of the native population.
Since it started opening up its economy to foreign investment after 1990, Cuba has signed more than 300 deals, mostly involving foreign businesses from Canada, Europe and Latin America.